Cancer
Information, Symptoms, Treatments and Resources
Get the Facts About Ovarian Cancer
What Is Ovarian Cancer?
What Is Ovarian Cancer?
Ovarian cancer develops in the ovaries. The ovaries are the female reproductive glands that produce eggs for fertilization, and the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Almost all ovarian tumors are epithelial ovarian carcinomas — cancerous tumors that grow from the cells on the outer surface of the ovary.
Some epithelial tumors are known as tumors of low malignant potential, or LMP tumors. LMP tumors grow and spread slowly, are not always cancerous and are generally considered less life-threatening than regular epithelial masses.
By Emily Lavin. Published September 20, 2011. Emily is a health writer and editor living in San Francisco.
